1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been conventionally known an image processing system in which, in an environment that a plurality of image processing apparatuses, such as a fax apparatus, a printer apparatus, and an multifunction peripheral (MFP), is connected to a network, a first apparatus that has accepted an instruction to perform output processing of image data may request a second apparatus to execute a process that the first apparatus cannot perform.
For example, there is proposed a method in which, when an apparatus that does not have a fax transmission function has accepted an instruction to perform processing of fax transmission, the apparatus which has accepted the instruction to perform processing of fax transmission asks another image processing apparatus that can be communicated with, whether the image processing apparatus has a fax transmission function, and requests the image processing apparatus to perform fax transmission if the apparatus receives a reply to the effect that the image processing apparatus has a fax transmission function (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-290647).
In the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-290647, if a plurality of apparatuses having the fax transmission function is connected to a network, a user or the apparatus which has accepted the instruction to perform processing of fax transmission arbitrarily selects one apparatus from the plurality of apparatuses, and requests the selected apparatus to perform fax transmission.
Before the selected fax-transmitting-side apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as the “transmitter”) actually faxes image data to a receiving-side apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as a “receiver”), the transmitter exchanges information on capacity of the apparatus with the receiver, and determines a transmission condition, and then faxes actual image data to the receiver (hereinafter, referred to as “negotiation”). Here, the transmission condition is determined to conform to capacity which both the transmitter and the receiver have.
However, in the case where fax transmission is realized in cooperation with another apparatus, a user-selected transmitter may not always have capacity that allows a receiver to use full capacity. For example, even if a user can select an apparatus capable of dealing with the same compression format as a compression format having the highest compression capacity in compression formats that a receiver can deal with, the user may not be able to select this apparatus as a transmitter because the user cannot recognize capacities of all apparatuses connected to the network. If an apparatus capable of dealing with only compression formats having compression capacity lower than the compression capacity of the compression format that the receiver can deal with is selected as a transmitter by the user, a transmission condition is determined to conform to the compression format having the low compression capacity that the transmitter can deal with. Specifically, if the receiver can deal with two image compression formats: JBIG, which is one of the high-efficiency compression formats, and MMR, of which the compression rate is lower than JBIG; and the transmitter can deal with MMR only, the compression format is determined to be MMR common to the receiver and the transmitter.
However, in the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-290647, a transmitter is arbitrarily selected from a plurality of apparatuses connected to a system, and therefore an optimum transmitter cannot be selected by comparing all apparatuses that can be communicated with, and it is not always possible to select a transmitter having capacity that is the same as or closest to capacity that a receiver has.